Purpose of Organization

I have defined "organization" is a group of people who have chosen to gather into a unit to fulfill a specific purpose. The previous post considered the nature of an organization as being composed of people, but left off at the concept of a purpose.

The concept of purpose is significant, in that the purpose of an organization drives the behavior of those who constitute the organization. Within any other group, there is no unity of action. Take the example of race: one can distinguish a group of people as belonging to a given race, and the people may even accept that they are members of that race, but the race has a purpose or agenda (though certain members claim as much so to encourage others to support their personal agenda), it is merely a category.

Likewise, the residents of a given neighborhood happen to live in the same defined geographic area, but are not necessarily an organization. They may have certain interests in common, as a result of their similarity in the location in which they reside (not to mention that there are often other similarities among people who reside proximate to one another, such as their economic class), but are not necessarily organized to serve their common interest.

I have used "not necessarily" in the previous paragraph because there are instances in which a neighborhood organizes itself for a purpose, forming a homeowners' association. While that seems to be the trend in certain areas, it is not a necessity: people can live proximate to one another without forming an association.

An organization is gathered for a specific purpose, and is generally internally structured to suit that purpose. Participants or members of the organization have specific roles, which may be directly related to the core purpose or done in support of other members, and the affairs of the organization are conducted with some degree of formality.

Admittedly, this is a generalization: I would expect that, within any organization, there are members who do not actively support the agenda or interests of the organization, but have ulterior motives for participation. However, even in such instances, there is the expectation of the organization that its members will fulfill certain roles, and this is understood by all its members, even if they choose to act otherwise.

Choice is significant, and it occurs to me (though I am not entirely firm in this conclusion) that voluntary participation is a characteristic of an organization - an individual chooses to identify himself as part of an organization, and the other members of the organization choose to accept that individual into the organization. The individual may choose to leave the members, or other members may choose to expel him.

I'm not sure this is strictly necessary: there may be instances in which a person is not able to decide whether to join or leave an organization, or in which other members of an organization are unable to block his entry or mandate his exit. However, I have the sense that mutual acceptance of participation is a distinguishing characteristics that differentiates organizations from arbitrary groups.